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Where Will the NFL Bounty Case Lead?

For most of us, Friday afternoons are pretty great—the week is winding down, weekend plans are shaping up. But while the stretch between lunch and quitting time on Fridays is a happy one for most working folk, it’s also where people looking to bury bad news—politicians, corporations, anyone else who might want to sneak a big-deal bummer past a clocked-out news media—turn in hopes that fewer people will notice. So it seems telling that the NFL chose Friday afternoon to release a voluminous report detailing a multi-year investigation into an alleged “bounty system” run by former New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, reportedly with the knowledge of general manager Mickey Loomis and head coach Sean Payton, in which Williams and between 22 and 27 players participated in a system that awarded bonuses for injuring opposing players. Perfect Friday afternoon news, in other words.

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Just how rare was the behavior of former Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams?

On Friday evening, Williams issued an apology that read, in part, “I want to express my sincere regret and apology to the NFL, Mr. Benson, and the New Orleans Saints fans for my participation in the ‘pay for performance’ program while I was with the Saints. It was a terrible mistake, and we knew it was wrong while we were doing it. Instead of getting caught up in it, I should have stopped it. I take full responsibility for my role.” Williams is expected to meet with NFL officials today. Saints owner Tom Benson pledged to continue to cooperate with the investigation in a brief statement posted on the team’s website. Loomis and Payton have yet to comment.

That apology and the league’s savvy placement of the wince-inducing story did little to mute the effect, however. Players who worked with Williams during his tenure as head coach of the Buffalo Bills during the first part of the last decade said that his bounty-hunting system was in place during those years, too. The Washington Post suggested that Williams’s bounty system was also his M.O. during his tenure as the Redskins’ defensive coordinator, which directly followed his firing in Buffalo. “The Williams bonus system, as described by the N.F.L., sounds on its face like a racketeering conspiracy to commit felony assault and battery in order to advance a shared business interest,” the New Yorker’s Steve Coll writes. “A conspiracy of this type would be prosecuted with jail time by most city attorneys if the offenders were pool-hall thugs targeting, say, tourists who came by to drink beer and rack up eight ball.”

Williams is a coaching disciple of former Chicago Bears defensive coordinator Buddy Ryan, who was notorious for his use of bounties. But Ryan hasn’t coached in the NFL in years, and things like this are not supposed to happen in today’s NFL. In the Chicago Tribune, former player Matt Bowen explains how and why they do. “I ate it up,” Bowen writes. “I wanted to be That Guy for him, playing the game with an attitude opposing players absolutely feared. If that meant playing through the whistle or going low on a tackle, I did it. I don’t regret any part of it. I can’t. … Bounties, cheap shots, whatever you want to call them, they are a part of this game.”

And that’s the truly complicated part. “No one can endorse the operation of a slush fund that paid out bounties for injuries to key opposing players,” Yahoo’s Les Carpenter writes. “But to grasp how it could happen, one has to understand the culture in which he coached, the combativeness with which his teams played and the way his players responded to his demands to be relentless and even dangerous.” As with everything else involving the institutionalized brutality of the NFL, it’s a lot harder to take—and a lot less surprising—when we actually bother to think and talk about it.

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Rory McIlroy has packed many dazzling moments into his short career, and certainly enough that it’s no longer surprising when he does what he did on Sunday—coolly roll in big putt after big putt under ever-increasing pressure. McIlroy has been the steadiest player in the world of late, finishing in fifth place or above in nine of his last 10 starts. Last weekend, McIlroy held off a vintage charge from Tiger Woods to win the Honda Classic—and a more symbolic, and arguably more important honor. With the win, the 22-year-old took over as the top-ranked player in the world.

“McIlroy never came unspooled as he won for the third time on the PGA Tour,” Steve Elling writes at CBS Sports. “At age 22 when most players have barely started their careers, he already has a major and the No. 1 ranking to his credit, and it certainly looks like more smooth seas ahead.” The only player to reach number one at a younger age was the one chasing him up the leaderboard at Florida’s PGA National. That McIlroy held off Tiger was impressive on its own; that he seems poised for a Tiger-like run of excellence is even more so.

“No, you aren’t suffering from a case of déjà vu; the top golfer in the world is a cocksure twentysomething with a truckload of talent,” Yahoo’s Jonathan Wall writes. “The last time we were able to utter those exact words was back on June 15, 1997, when a young Tiger Woods took the sport by its throat. … Like Woods when he was just 21, it’s scary to look at McIlroy and think he’s not even close to reaching the prime of his career.”

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The very idea of it seems like a joke, and not necessarily a good one—more the sort that is preceded by Jay Leno saying, “Have you seen this, have you heard about this?” But the prospect of yoga becoming an Olympic sport is not at all a joke, even if it is also not at all un-amusing. But the practice itself is every bit as demanding as is, say, rhythmic gymnastics or archery—if also notably more inclusive of meditation and oriented towards self-discovery. In the Journal, Jason Gay takes the idea of Olympic yoga seriously, and approaches it in an appropriately insightful manner.

Found a good column from the world of sports? Don’t keep it to yourself — write to us at dailyfixlinks@gmail.com and we’ll consider your find for inclusion in the Daily Fix. You can email David at droth11@gmail.com.

Comments (5 of 13)

The lawyers and law need to GTFO. What's next? Arresting the entire UFC?

There's no logical line to draw here. Either it's all legal or it's all illegal. Does the ref crew become a grand jury? Every personal foul gets forwarded to the DA? Deputize them and give them hand cuffs?

What about a pitcher throwing at a batter? Fighting in the NHL?

Might as well bring out the velcro flags and take away the pads. This talk is just further evidence of the pu**ification of America. Let the NFL handle it.

11:14 am March 8, 2012

Jack Burke wrote:

The bounty issue is serious. As a fan, it's enough to get me marching in the street. We fans need a quick resolution of the bounty matter. Personally, I'd like to know who was paid a bounty to hurt Peyton Manning.
Have we gotten that deep into the "investigation" yet? Having NFL Players review the bounty issue is worthless. What do you expect them to say of any consequence, other than "football is a contact sport."
We need to hear it from the league and the courts.

8:54 am March 7, 2012

rescarr wrote:

Could the Comissioner, Gooddell, be a part of the problem by not acting sooner. What did he know and when did he know it.

9:42 pm March 5, 2012

Curtis Loewe wrote:

Gregg Williams should be suspended a minimum one season and pay a huge fine. The New Orlean Saints have to lose several 1st round draft picks at least 2 or 3 to be shown that this will not be tolerated. Last but not least players that "won" bounty must be suspended and fined. The Commissioner has to show resolve to clean this mess up otherwise the league is meaningless and advertisers of the NFL games should withdraw support. Less TV revenue will certainly get the league's attention.

9:16 pm March 5, 2012

Anonymous wrote:

The saints should lose their super bowl wins under Williams. Football is suppose to ba a sport, the saints turned the super bowl win into a criminal acquisition. I'll alway remember their dirty playoff win against the Vikings in 2009. The nfl has lost a lot of credibility.

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